Bali 2013 - Where we stayed

We have just returned from an amazing ten day holiday in Bali with our children. I want to share the journey with you, so over the next week, I'm going to write several posts on different topics:

• Where we stayed (accom and location)
• Cultural activities
• Adventure activities
• Food, Sight seeing and shopping
• And perhaps a travelling with kids wrap up

Enjoy!

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Where we stayed

When we were planning our Bali holiday, our first priority was to avoid the over commercialised tourist areas as much as possible and get out there to see some real Bali. However, we also wanted to be comfortable and safe, budget conscious, and allow the kids to see and do some of the more touristy stuff and also enjoy relaxing in/by a pool. Tough order!  

Enjoying the view from the Klub Kokos activity room.

Our first hotel met our needs perfectly, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wanted a Bali holiday that was just a little bit off the beaten track. 

Klub Kokos is a small hotel situated in the village of Bangkiang Sidem in the Ubud region of Bali. We chose it based on the website and booked for seven nights including a pickup from our flight which arrived late at night. Before our trip, I had several email contacts with Cathy (the Australian expat owner) who was very helpful, offering advice on money changing, tours and more. 

On arrival in Bali, we were met by our driver, Ketut. The drive to the hotel took about an hour, and while it was dark, so we couldn't see much, we did feel the difference as we left the hubbub of Denpasar with its very busy, wide roads and moved through more suburban areas with their narrower, still busy roads, surrounded by warungs (small restaurants) and stores, and finally into the dark and quiet of the countryside, onto a rough, single lane dirt road and into the driveway of Klub Kokos. 

Master bedroom at Klub Kokos.
Note the open part at the top of the wall which was well covered with insect mesh.

We were greeted by the manager, Kadek, who helpe
d us to our bungalow and showed us around. His English was great and he was kind and helpful. 

Towels in the bathroom were folded cleverly and decorated with flowers each day.

Our two bedroom bungalow was big, clean and well appointed. It had the beauty of Bali all over it from its carved teak doors, to the always open ventilated ceiling area and a balcony surrounded by flowers.  The "bedrooms" of the bungalow had no doors on them, but as they were separated enough, Stu and I could read in bed without disturbing the boys, and the massive balcony gave us another "room" to use when we needed to give sleeping people peace and quiet.

The rooms were well appointed inside and had a very generous balcony with tables and chairs.

Nights were noisy due to the constant sounds of frogs, toads, geckos, cicak (small geckos), birds and insects in the rice paddies that surrounded the hotel, and in the morning we were woken by the roosters from the village farms and the sounds of people going off to work in the bigger towns. All good noises for rural people like us. 

Early morning views of Mt Agung and farms from our room.

Stu and I woke early on our first morning and watched the sunrise over Mt Agung, one of Bali's sacred mountains, from our room - pretty special!

Lachie enjoying the extensive Klub Kokos library.

Before we had breakfast in the restaurant (we could've had it in our room, but elected for the restaurant each morning so we could watch life pass by), we checked out the ping pong table and extensive library. Our bookworm children would've spent the entire week in there!  We didn't use the toy room, but it would've been brilliant for younger children. 

Jamie enjoying a mixed fruit breakfast juice.

Breakfast each morning was either Balinese nasi goreng with a fried egg (my favourite!) or eggs and toast. Both breakfasts were served with a delicious, freshly made mixed fruit juice and tea/coffee. Stu bravely opted for the Bali Kopi on the first morning, despite hearing rumours of its very thick, strong style. He loved it!  And went back for more each morning of the trip. 

View from our bedroom window.... bliss.

The hotel staff were all extremely friendly and helpful and the whole place was kept clean and beautifully decorated with flowers. The kids loved being able to swim in the pool each day and lounging on the sun loungers. And we enjoyed the complimentary tea/coffee each afternoon which was served with a different Balinese cake or snack each day. 

Relaxing poolside at Klub Kokos after a long morning of activities.

The manager was able to help us book some of our activities and tours and arranged cultural activities with a local family (I'll talk about them later). 

The hotel was located on the Campuan ridge, between the Campuan and Ayung rivers. The village it was in was small, consisting mainly of small farms and artists' gallleries, though there was also a cafe which catered to the needs of tourists trekking from Ubud village up the ridge and around through Campuan village. We didn't do the whole trek, but did walk the 2km walk into Ubud village each day (and home one night). 

Walking to Ubud along the Campuan ridge.

The walk to Ubud was mostly along footpath, so no traffic. During the day it was dotted with tourists and in the afternoon it seemed to become a favourite hang out for local teenagers. It felt safe and friendly to walk to town and greet the locals as we passed. Each step opened up new amazingly beautiful vistas, it was a real pleasure to walk each day. 

We only walked the return trip once though. It was spooky at night (for no reason other than it was really dark) and it was hard going with tired kids, especially since Lachie tripped and grazed his shin part way home!  Mostly we took a taxi from Ubud village to the hotel. It was a reasonably long drive as they had to go around the long way, and the taxi drives cost between about $7 and $10 each time. 

The gardens at Klub Kokos were beautiful.

We ate at the hotel restaurant a couple of times and the food was good and reasonably priced. 

If (when!) we go back to Bali, we intend to stay in the Ubud region again, and while I wouldn't hesitate to stay at, or recommend Klub Kokos, we met and became friends with a local man who has promised to help us find a villa to rent. We could've done that this time, but having the hotel staff to help us was brilliant!  Next time we will know people who can help us and can enjoy a different experience. 

We were all sad to say goodbye to Klub Kokos and Ubud when we left, especially Lachie and I who shed a few tears. It was such a beautiful part of our holiday. But all good things must come to an end, and so, after 7 nights, we took a transfer to our hotel in Tuban (South Kuta), Green Garden Hotel. 

Sadly, by the time we arrived in Kuta, we wanted to leave. The hour long drive into the busy areas, past copious quantities of rubbish, polluted waterways and messy building sites wasn't pretty. But neither were the huge monuments to tourism in the form of global fast food chains, massive hotels and copious quantities of tacky souvenirs. 

We were early to arrive at the hotel and were not able to access our room. The staff were offhand and told us that they had had to change our reservation to a different room. Feeling tired and dissapointed, we stored our bags there and went in search of a comforting lunch. 

Comfort in Kuta cams in the form of air conditioned shopping centres and western food, a far cry from the small Balinese restsurant we took comfort in on our first day exploring Ubud. 

The hotel was only a few hundred metres from the large Discovery/Centro shopping centre, which was right opposite Waterbom Park. But that short walk was choc full of touts using bad Aussie accents and trying to sell us massages, watches, toys, Bintang (beer) tshirts, tours, taxis etc. Unlike in Ubud, they would touch us, grab at the kids and call us 'mate', 'boss', 'boy' and 'darling'. It no longer felt nice and they often didn't take no for an answer. I felt sad that tourism has changed the culture so much in these areas. 

The only photo we were inspired to take at Green Garden!
Towel origami each day - this day was an elephant.

When we finally were able to check into our room, we found a decent sized room that was clean and quite well appointed. But the tiny balcony was uninhabitable as it looked over the street and was therefore choked in fumes from the traffic and inside, we had to use air conditioning as there was no fan and we couldn't open windows due to the noise and pollution. 

The swimming pool looked nice, but since it was located in the centre of the very cramped hotel grounds and shaded on all sides by three stories of rooms, the water was cold and we never swam in it. 

Unable to find any good restaurants that served Balinese food and didn't have the AFL football playing on big screen tvs, we ate at the hotel that night. The menu was designed for tourists that don't want to experience a lot of Balinese food, and so we all ate burgers, which were nothing special, for tea. 

We then endured two nights with very little sleep. The room we had been given not only received all the noise from the street, but was set above the restaurant where they played music extremely loudly till about 10.30 the first night, and then had a two piece band who were even louder the second. We hired a DVD player and stayed up with the kids to watch a DVD, but had to turn it up way too loud just to hear it. We all used ear plugs, but still found the noise too much for sleep. After the second night, when we were all very tired and irritable, we asked to change rooms. They were able to move us, and the new room was better and quieter, but we still missed to peace of Klub Kokos.

Green Garden Hotel was supposed to be a good option for families with kids, and the room itself was certainly good - a big queen size bed and a set of bunks that could be separated with a curtain when the kids went to sleep.  But nothing else about the hotel really suited our family.  It was located in a very busy part of Kuta, the clientele were not all.... ummmm.... our kind of people, shall we say?  The staff, while friendly, were better suited to the partying adults than to kids, and the restaurant was also not fabulous for kids and extremely noisy.  All up, we would never stay there again and wouldn't recommend it to families.

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Stay tuned - tomorrow I'll tell you about the cool Cultural Activities we enjoyed during our holiday......